1. World problems
  2. Oversimplification

Oversimplification

  • False simplification
  • Misguided simplification of complexity

Claim

By reducing complexity to more cognitively comfortable levels, analysts not only diminish a problem's apparent difficulty, but also transform it from a technologically unanswerable question to yet another designer-engineering task. Thus the fact that a large percentage of the population is malnourished is transformed from a complex political and economic problem caused by a history of exploitation to the more comfortable and technologically familiar problem of growing food. Moreover, once this transformation has taken place, the technocratic mentality focuses exclusively on the dimensions of the redefined task, to the extent that moral and ethical responsibilities or involvement are minimized or even abrogated.

In a complex socio-political situation such as Yugoslavia, false simplification is not the best that can be done. It assures failure. The focus on Bosnia, for example, is an understandable mistake, since that is where most of the killing is occurring. It is an inadequate response since it comforts the illusion that the crisis can be resolved step by step, when, one way or another, all the people in the region are engaged in the complex, poisonous jumble of European history.

Broader

Narrower

Reductionism
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Aggravates

Aggravated by

Related

Unpreparedness
Unpresentable
Complexity
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Strategy

Simplifying
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Over-simplifying
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Being truthful
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Being fallacious
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Value

Misguidance
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Fallacy
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Complexity
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Metadata

Database
World problems
Type
(F) Fuzzy exceptional problems
Biological classification
N/A
Content quality
Yet to rate
 Yet to rate
Language
English
1A4N
F8455
DOCID
11684550
D7NID
144672
Last update
Dec 3, 2024